HBO’s Girls :: Boys

Well hallelujah, Hanna (Lena Dunham) kept her clothes on throughout an entire episode. Shocking, I know, because it seemed that "Girls" was really just becoming about Lena Dunham dealing with body image issues in front of America. Lo and behold the only naked person this week was Booth (Jorma Taccone). At least the guys are getting their share of naked screen time. Which is apropos for an episode entitled: "Boys."

This time, the girls take a (somewhat) backseat to the action while the episode looks at the girl’s relationships from the guy’s side, the guys being Shoshanna’s boyfriend Ray (Alex Karposky) and Hannah’s ex Adam (Adam Driver). Ray goes to see Adam to get a book back that Hannah left at his apartment. Adam still hates Hannah and has stolen a vicious dog to replace her. Ray convinces Adam to return the dog so the two have a boy’s day out as they head to Staten Island. There they realize they are both pretty messed up individuals. Adam is just borderline psychotic, Ray is a loser and he knows it. It doesn’t help that the owner of the dog’s daughter calls him out on it. Poor Ray. But hopefully this makes him grow up and stop whining about everybody including himself.

Meanwhile, Marnie (Allison Williams) has been spending a lot of time with Booth and thinks they are a thing. He asks her to help host a party only to eventually discover that by "host" he meant - "use your hosting skills to help me with the party." So this cool relationship she thought she was having is, well, not so much a relationship just sex and conversation.

Other than that, the big news is Hannah being hired to write an e-book for an indie publisher. She is overjoyed but has no idea what to write and has a month to do so. Not only that, no one seems really interested because, shocker, everyone is too self-involved to look past her own pretty reflections. And as the episode comes to a close, it’s apparent that Marnie and Hannah might not have anything to really talk about anymore.

It’s interesting to note that the writer of this episode was Murray Miller ("American Dad") and Claudia Weill ("Once and Again") directed it. Most episodes have Dunham either writing or directing. This seemed to give the episode a more grown-up feel and the story seemed to progress; whereas sometimes previous episodes seemed scattered and random.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore Lena Dunham and I think she has an amazing voice as a writer, but there are times when you need a break and last night’s episode was a welcome respite.

Kevin Taft is a screenwriter/critic living in Los Angeles with an unnatural attachment to ’Star Wars’ and the desire to be adopted by Steven Spielberg. He can be seen in the flesh on the weekly PBS movie review series "Just Seen It."